NC pushes Chemours for GenX information, action

Friday

Jun 9, 2017 at 5:45 PMJun 10, 2017 at 12:16 PM

Lack of standards complicates move by environmental officials

By Adam Wagner GateHouse Media

RALEIGH -- State regulators and Chemours are locked in ongoing discussions about GenX, a chemical produced at the chemical giant's plant near Fayetteville that researchers have found in the Cape Fear River, N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) officials said Friday.

A major hurdle to any action will be that GenX is an emerging contaminant, meaning, officials said, any enforceable standard would need to come from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"We can't regulate it at a set number because no number exists. But given the concern, we will ask (Chemours) about it, talk to them about it," said Julie Grzyb, the supervisor of DEQ's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) complex permitting staff.

Establishing a standard takes years, sometimes decades, due to the deliberate, science-grounded nature of the process.

For instance, C8, the chemical DuPont and Chemours agreed to phase out before eventually replacing it with GenX, has been found to likely cause cancer, high cholesterol and other diseases. In February, C8 was the subject of a $670.7 million class action lawsuit settlement in West Virginia.

But the EPA has said a federal standard for C8 will not come until at least 2019.

Unanswered questions

One option open to state regulators could be requiring Chemours to monitor the Cape Fear River near its 2,150-acre site, about 100 miles upstream from Wilmington, as part of the company's NPDES permit. The company would need to agree to that provision as part of the permit's five-year review process, which is scheduled to begin within the next six months.

A Chemours spokesman would not answer specific questions Friday about the ongoing discussions between the chemical company and regulators or whether the company would be willing to install a monitoring system as part of its NPDES permit renewal process. An additional question asked if the company has heard from local officials or residents and, if so, what its message has been to those people.

The StarNews also reached out to officials in the EPA's Southeastern region with similar questions. A spokesperson responded late in the day to say the questions had been passed to the agency's federal office.

'High gear'

State officials remain optimistic Chemours will agree to share some internal information about GenX, noting they believe the chemical company has historically been open about what is being discharged at the Fayetteville plant.

"Most industries want to do the right thing," Grzyb said, "and we would work with the industry -- ask them what can they do and work with them from there. If they were willing to commit to something, we could put something in a permit."

DEQ officials have been hurrying this week to learn as much as they can about GenX, contacting federal EPA officials, as well as Detlef Knappe, the N.C. State University researcher whose teams located the chemical in the Cape Fear River on three separate occasions.

"We had conversations today and, again, looking at the national data, looking at the data that's been generated here in North Carolina and looking at the research ... how can that contribute not only to the state dialogue, but to the national dialogue?" said Linda Culpepper, deputy director of the N.C. Division of Water Resources.

The average concentration of GenX found by Knappe's teams at Cape Fear Public Utility Authority's (CFPUA) intake on the Cape Fear River in 2013-14 was 631 parts per trillion, nine times the 70 parts per trillion drinking water advisory standard -- an unenforceable, scientifically based suggestion -- the EPA has implemented for C8.

"It's put everybody in high gear to really figure out what this is," Marla Sink, a spokeswoman for DEQ's Division of Water Resources, said about Knappe's research and the StarNews report.

Local water agencies such as Brunswick County Public Utilities, CFPUA and H2GO have noted repeatedly in multiple forums this week that their water meets all federal and state standards. This is true, but GenX's relatively new nature means it remains unregulated and does not have a federal or state standard.

Is it safe?

Scientists and public officials have many unanswered questions about GenX and its impacts on humans.

Chemours has previously said GenX underwent extensive safety evaluations as part of the EPA's standard review process.

Still, scientists are concerned perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), the class to which both GenX and C8 belong, have been proven dangerous enough to raise concerns.

Dr. Alan Ducatman, a professor of environmental health sciences at West Virginia University's School of Public Health, has researched the impacts of contamination at the Parkersburg, W.Va., plant that led to the $670 million settlement. Ducatman recently told the StarNews that he is wary of anything proclaiming GenX safe.

“I hope, I really hope, that the replacement chemicals are as safe as DuPont scientists think," he said. "I believe that it is reasonable to hope that they are either ‘safer’ or ‘less hazardous’ to humans. The choice of ‘safer’ or ‘less hazardous’ is a matter of perspective. And nothing about either term should be equated with ‘we know it’s safe.’ In my view, we don’t."

Late Friday, New Hanover County released a statement in partnership with CFPUA and the City of Wilmington, saying it had sent a letter to DEQ to take the lead on researching as quickly as possibly "the nature, extent and potential impacts of GenX."

According to county officials, representatives from the county, city and CFPUA also spoke to the Chemours Company Friday in an hour-and-half-long phone call, and local officials would be meeting with technical experts from the company next week to better understand the situation and any possibly health risks.

Reporter Adam Wagner can be reached at 910-343-2389 or Adam.Wagner@GateHouseMedia.com.

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